


Gladberry and Sadberry

by Esselle



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Pre-Relationship, summer job
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-29
Updated: 2018-09-29
Packaged: 2019-07-20 07:40:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16132718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Esselle/pseuds/Esselle
Summary: 'Hinata is everything Kageyama has never dreamed of or imagined being, which is to say, actually happy while wearing a ludicrously large fruit costume.He is a red strawberry, and the suit, well… suits him, in as much as the berry ensemble can suit anyone. Hinata's little round face pokes out of the bright red fruit with a constant smile, and his red hair both complements and clashes with the costume. He is cheerful and sunny and loves his job.Kageyama can't stand him.'--A fatefully fruity meeting.





	Gladberry and Sadberry

**Author's Note:**

> One thousand years later, I am finally putting this on AO3!!!! This was originally posted on Tumblr ages ago but I just recently discovered 8)))))) that section breaks in Tumblr mobile are just not working, which renders a lot of my Tumblr fics incredibly difficult to read. Wonderful. 
> 
> Anyways, as this one has a lot of breaks and probably deserves to be on AO3, here it is

Summer jobs are the actual fucking worst, Kageyama thinks.

Sure, he's lucky to have gotten one, and sure, it's nice to be making a little money, but to be honest, if he'd known what he'd be getting into, he probably would have just gone short on pocket change for the rest of the break.

But he's got the job, and he can't quit now, so every Tuesday and Thursday, he walks down to the local market and slips into the back room and puts on his mascot outfit before going to stand out on the street corner with his sign that advertises DELICIOUS FRUIT - PICKED DAILY - GET IT WHILE IT'S FRESH.

He is a fucking blueberry.

That's it, that's the costume. The body of it is an enormous, hollowed out, round monstrosity, and it comes with a long sleeved, long-legged, skintight blue body suit for him to wear underneath. Only his face pokes out, emerging from the middle of the blueberry's body so he can breath, presumably.

He stands on the side of the road for a couple hours every day, holding his sign, hating his life, and then in the evening he trudges to the back room and removes himself somewhat, but not quite, from the vestiges of blueberry shame. On Thursdays, he collects his meager paycheck. He thinks things can not get any worse, and he is correct.

And then, one day, he meets the strawberry.

*

Hinata is everything Kageyama has never dreamed of or imagined being, which is to say, actually happy while wearing a ludicrously large fruit costume.

He is a red strawberry, and the suit, well… _suits_ him, in as much as the berry ensemble can suit anyone. Hinata's little round face pokes out of the bright red fruit with a constant smile, and his red hair both complements and clashes with the costume. He is cheerful and sunny and loves his job.

Kageyama can't stand him.

Hinata waves at passersby in their cars. He dances about, leaping from foot to foot, looking like he might fall over at any second in his top heavy strawberry getup. He spins his sign like a circus performer, cheering for himself whenever he manages not to drop it, which isn't often.

He tries to talk to Kageyama, usually, and Kageyama pretends like he can't hear him, usually, because it's hard enough standing around in his dumb outfit, and its worse when he has to keep turning every three seconds to answer all of Hinata's questions.

After about a week, they get called into the main office. They both cram in there in their costumes (their _fruitsuits_ , Hinata calls them). They are so fat in them that Kageyama's side touches one wall, and Hinata's side touches the opposite.

Their manager tells Kageyama they are firing him.

"What?!" Hinata shouts, before Kageyama can say a word. "Why?!"

"He's giving us a bad image," their manager tells them.

"That's not true!" Hinata says. "People love him!"

 _They do?_ Kageyama wonders.

"We've got a routine!" Hinata contines.

 _We do?_ Kageyama wonders harder.

"If you fire him, it'll mess up—" Hinata spreads his arms in a wide arc, almost hitting Kageyama in the face, _"—eeeeeverything!"_ He looks slightly manic. Kageyama and the manager stare at him.

"What is the routine called?" their manager finally asks.

"Gladberry and Sadberry!" Hinata chirps. He points at Kageyama. "He's Sadberry."

*

Kageyama doesn't get fired.

The rest of that day, it eats at him. Finally, Kageyama barks out a "Hey."

Hinata, who has been trying (failing) to manage a successful cartwheel for the past twenty-seven minutes, stops and turns to stare at him, his mouth open wide in shock. It is the first time Kageyama has addressed him voluntarily.

"Why do you act like you like doing this?" Kageyama asks him.

"I don't act like I like doing this," Hinata says. "I do like doing this. It's fun!"

Kageyama scowls. "Why did you stop them from firing me?"

"I explained that!" Hinata exclaims. "It would mess up our routine!"

Kageyama blinks at him. "We have a routine?"

Hinata blinks back. "Um, yes? Don't we?"

*

They have a routine now.

Rather, it's less of a routine and more of them just being themselves. Kageyama stands there, gloomily, with his arms sticking out at his round blueberry sides, while Hinata bounces around him, seeming for all the world to be enjoying himself.

"Kageyama," Hinata asks out of the blue one afternoon, "Do you want to walk and get lunch together, today?"

"Okay," Kageyama answers, without quite realizing what he's done, and by then it's too late to take it back. Hinata is already running in circles around him, cheering.

After that, they get lunch together every day.

*

Hinata starts challenging him to sign spinning contests. Kageyama insists that he is better, and Hinata will never be able to surpass him. Hinata takes this personally. They both end up so good at sign spinning that they actually could probably be circus performers.

The day Kageyama finally manages a one handed behind the back triple aerial sign spin, he actually grins. Hinata applauds, then begrudgingly announces, "I'll catch up to you."

He flips his sign violently into the air, tries to catch it, and misses. It lands with a loud _WHAP_ on his face.

Kageyama is smug. "Unlikely."

*

One day, Hinata comes to work with red cheeks and a runny nose. Kageyama is convinced he has a summer cold, but Hinata won't admit to it. He tries to run around as energetically as he always does, but all his movements are sluggish and half-hearted.

It is around mid-day that they realize they've accidentally switched water bottles. Kageyama shouts himself blue in the face at Hinata (thematically in keeping with the rest of his costume), then tells him he better drink lots of fluids and get rest that night, _or else._ It's not a very scary threat, but still.

Kageyama gets sick. The next morning, they both come in to work with the sniffles, and they last a whole half-shift as two very Sadberries. Their manager yells at them to go home.

Hinata's is closer, so they walk there together, collapse on the couch, and don't wake up until evening, to find Hinata's mom has made them both chicken noodle soup, which they eat while feeling very sorry for themselves.

Afterwards, they just go back to sleep. Hinata passes out on top of Kageyama on the couch, two tissues stuffed up his nostrils to keep him from leaking snot all over Kageyama's work shirt.

*

Summer ends, as all things do, and with it comes their last day of work.

Strangely, while Kageyama is feeling very buoyant over the prospect of getting to say goodbye to the blueberry suit after having stuck it out for the entire summer, Hinata seems much more subdued than usual.

As they enter the back room to change out of their costumes for the last, blessed time, Hinata yelps, suddenly, "I'm going to miss this job!"

"Really?" Kageyama snorts. "I can't wait to be done."

Hinata wilts. "Did you really hate it that much?"

"Yes," Kageyama says, without hesitation. Hinata looks heartbroken. "But," Kageyama continues, "if you still wanted to hang out and stuff now, that'd be okay."

Hinata's eyes light up, and then he's bouncing over, _bounding_ over, throwing himself full body at Kageyama, who sees his death arriving in the form of a giant strawberry, before they're both toppling over onto the floor. The blueberry cushions Kageyama's fall, the only thing it's ever been good for.

Hinata pokes his face as far as it will go out of his costume, and after much straining and grunting, manages to boop Kageyama's nose with his own.

"I really like you," he says, breathlessly.

Kageyama stares up at him. "I like you too."

Hinata beams at him.  

"I don't think I can get up," Kageyama tells him. Experimentally, he wiggles his arms and legs. This accomplishes nothing.

"I'm pretty sure we're going to die back here," Hinata admits.

*

(They don't die. They go on a first date the next weekend, to a dessert shop. Hinata has the blueberry pie, and Kageyama tries the strawberry shortcake.

Kageyama still thinks summer jobs suck, but figures his coworker is not that bad.)

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> There was a surprising amount of hilarious art created for this AU, which is all at the [fruit AU tag](http://esselley.tumblr.com/tagged/fruit%20au) on my Tumblr! Also, this fic has a sorta unconnected, smutty sequel set many years later that you can read [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10700355/chapters/24570948) XD
> 
> [Multishipping at [@esselley](http://esselley.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr, [@Esselle_hq](https://twitter.com/Esselle_hq) on Twitter]


End file.
